Dumb Dumber (1994)

December 16, 1994

FILM REVIEW;
Traveling on Half a Tank

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

Published: December 16, 1994

If critical traditions count for anything, Jim Carrey can look forward one day to being discovered by the French film establishment and canonized as the new Jerry Lewis. There are moments all through his newest movie, "Dumb and Dumber," when the rubber-faced actor with a chipped front tooth, his hair in bangs and his cough-drop eyes ablaze with maniacal mischief, is almost a dead ringer for Mr. Lewis on one of his hyperactive jags.

Mr. Carrey's version of Mr. Lewis, it should be noted, adds hefty dashes of sex and scatology in a 6-year-old's style. The funniest scene in the movie involves a powerful laxative, a broken toilet and some graphically colorful sound effects.

Mr. Lewis is only the strongest comic influence on "Dumb and Dumber," a movie that fully lives up to its name, right down to an opening credit sequence rife with intentional misspellings and grammatical errors. Paired with Jeff Daniels, whose hangdog goofiness makes a perfect foil for his spasmodically edgy comic style, Mr. Carrey plays Beavis to Mr. Daniels's Butt-head as they go on a wild cross-country road trip from Providence, R.I., to Aspen, Colo.

Mr. Carrey is Lloyd, the world's clumsiest limousine driver, and Mr. Daniels is Harry, Lloyd's dog-grooming roommate who travels around in a "Mutts Cutts" truck, a van transformed into a giant sheep dog, complete with tongue and wagging tail. Their careers on the skids, they hit the road in the truck for Colorado, carrying a briefcase that Mary (Lauren Holley), one of Lloyd's passengers, accidentally left in an airport. Unbeknownst to Lloyd, it contains ransom money for a kidnapping, and the two find themselves pursued by thugs.

"Dumb and Dumber," which was directed by Peter Farrelly, who wrote the screenplay with his brother Bobby and Bennett Yellin, is a movie that knows much better than to try to make sense. It is essentially a strung-together series of gags, most of them thought up by Lloyd, an inveterate practical joker. His pranks include sneaking red-hot chili peppers into the burgers of unsuspecting diners, plying pesky state troopers with urine-filled beer bottles and selling decapitated birds to children who are blind.

When Lloyd and Harry get going, they are also quite a musical team. Sandwiched between them in the front seat of the Mutts Cutts truck, one unfortunate passenger has his eardrums shattered with their boisterous call-and-response version of "Mockingbird."

Once Lloyd and Harry arrive in Aspen, they embark on a spending spree that finds them living the high life in eye-catching orange and powder-blue formal wear. When Lloyd pops a Champagne cork at a stuffy banquet of preservationists, you can be sure that it will do some lethal damage. Harry's idyllic outing on the ski slopes with Mary is marred by an unfortunate accident. His tongue becomes frozen on a metal bar of the ski lift, and the only solution is for Mary to grab his head and pull hard.

Just how dumb is Mr. Carrey's character in "Dumb and Dumber"? During a conversation in a diner, Lloyd solemnly informs his sidekick that the Monkees were the biggest influence on the Beatles. Glancing at a framed front-page news story announcing the 1969 moon landing, Lloyd's mouth drops open in astonishment and he gushes: "Hey, no way! That's great!"

"Dumb and Dumber" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). The language is profanity-free, but much of the humor is scatological.
DUMB AND DUMBER
Directed by Peter Farrelly; written by Mr. Farrelly, Bennett Yellin and Bobby Farrelly; director of photography, Mark Irwin; edited by Christopher Greenbury; music by Todd Rundgren; production designer, Sidney J. Bartholomew Jr.; produced by Charles B. Wessler, Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler; released by New Line Cinema. Running time: 106 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.
WITH: Jim Carrey (Lloyd), Jeff Daniels (Harry), Lauren Holley (Mary) and Teri Garr (Helen Swanson)